MENOMONIE — The Holmen High School boys wrestling team has been building accomplishments all season.
The Vikings began the season expecting to be one of the state’s top Division 1 teams and showed just how powerful they are by winning six brackets and accumulating 260 points to win very easily the WIAA Menomonie individual sectional on Saturday.
Holmen, which is ranked second to Kaukauna in Division 1 by Wisconsin Grappler, earned a spot at a team dual sectional at Marshfield next Saturday and will send seven qualifiers to the WIAA individual state meet at the Kohl Center on Feb. 26-28.
Freshman Brendan Henderson, sophomore Rex Lancaster, junior Brock Needham, sophomore Nathan Henderson, senior AJ Alesch and senior Jagger Jepson all won individual championships as Holmen finished well ahead of Marshfield (168), Menomonie (165) and New Richmond in the team standings.
The winner of next weekend’s team sectional qualifies to compete for a state title at the La Crosse Center on March 6-7.
Freshman Brady Needham (35-17, 106 pounds) is also an individual state qualifier for the Vikings, who won the MVC championship this season. Third-seeded Needham advanced with a 13-11 decision over second-seeded Eldon Roth (35-11) of Stevens Point in the semifinal round. Needham lost the championship match but claimed second place with the previous win over Roth.
Onalaska/Luther senior Maximus Todd (41-4) also advanced to state as a runner-up at 190. Todd won his first two matches before a loss to top-seeded Jacob Hutchins of River Falls i the finals. He recovered to beat New Richmond’s Adam Wilhelm (36-11) via pin at 11:19 to earn true second place and the state spot.
Brendan Henderson (47-2), the top seed who is ranked fourth in the state at 113, won by technical fall or pin in all of his matches at that bracket in Menomonie. He pinned second-seeded Evan Thao (36-7) at 3:45 in the championship bout.
Lancaster (43-4), seeded first and ranked third at 120, won twice by technical fall before pinning New Richmond’s fifth-ranked and second-seeded Walker Waidelich (39-8) at 4:32 of the 120-pound title match.
Needham (46-5), also the top seed, cruised through the bracket at 126. Ranked third in the state, Needham took care of Hudson’s 11th-ranked Miles Alters 7-1 in the finals.
Nathan Henderson (35-2), who was seeded first and is ranked fifth in the state at 138, picked up a significant 7-2 win over Menomonie’s Aiden Aure (32-3) in the finals after Aure — the state’s top-ranked 132-pounder — bumped up for the postseason. Henderson took Aure down twice and escaped once in the victory.
Alesch (44-7) made good on his top seed by winning all three of his matches at 150. Alesch is ranked 12th in the state at 157 but dropped for the tournament and beat Marshfield’s Easton Ledden (38-9) — ranked sixth at 150 — by a 4-2 score for the championship. Alesch won the match on a takedown with 35 seconds remaining.
Jepson (37-10) moved to the top of the medal stand as the third seed at 285. He beat second-seeded Logan Glovinski (31-14) of Wausau East 2-1 on a tiebreak in the semifinal round before knocking off top-seeded Beckett Selden (40-6) of Superior via pin in 3:07 of the title matchup.
DeForest Sectional
DEFOREST — The Logan/Central co-op missed out on a team sectional spot with a ninth-place finish and 85.5 points. Waunakee won the team title with 199, and Verona snagged the final team qualifying spot with 145.
The co-op has one state qualifier and just missed out on another.
Sophomore Rock West (17-17) may not be a likely state qualifier, but he performed when it mattered at 132 on Saturday.
West beat Tomah’s second-seeded Grayson Steen (32-13) by a score of 18-10 in the quarterfinal round, then handed Madison West’s Nick Ruth (16-10) a 20-3 loss by technical fall in the semifinals.
West was pinned in the finals but won a wild 20-16 decision over Waunakee’s Payton Schutz (25-19) in the battle for true second place. West recorded three takedowns in the third period after getting put on his back in the first period and trailing 12-11 after the second.
Logan/Central junior Calvin Arentz (45-8) had to settle for third place after an 11-7 loss to top-seeded Niko DeZiel (41-3) of Sun Prairie West in the semifinals. DeZiel was then beaten by second-seeded Brennan Ott (45-3) in the championship bout, and that left him in true second after the semifinal win over Arentz.
Sophomore Emmerson King (25-8) and junior Onesimus West (29-18) also finished fourth and at 138 and 144, respectively, for the co-op.
